


Two Charming Heroes

by seasalticecream32



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Mechanics AU, Modern Era, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 18:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5595964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasalticecream32/pseuds/seasalticecream32
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mechanics AU, where Finn tries to set up his two mechanic friends but they both love him too much. They think they’re going to have to compete (which is a shame, they like each other.) But then Finn has other plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Charming Heroes

Finn had car problems. This wasn’t surprising. He always had car problems. As a matter of fact, car problems were so common for him, that his two best friends were mechanics… who had saved him from the side of the road and a broken down Mustang in the middle of the night.

Poe Dameron—handsome, charming, and sweet—had found him fending off a couple of guys from the neighborhood across the street who Finn had caught trying to steal his tires. Poe drove his 1969 Camaro into the middle of the fight and laid on his horn. The boys had dropped their tire irons and disappeared into the twists of the neighborhood beyond. Before Finn thought about it he was climbing into the shiny red bullet of a car and then they were off.

Poe flashed him a toothy grin and tossed him a rag from the back. Finn was halfway done wiping the blood from his lip before he smelled and saw the grease. He was pretty sure instead of bright red blood there was black grease smeared across his cheek. He tossed the rag back to Poe just as the man let out a loud laugh.

“Sorry, I thought it was my clean one. There’s not many of those.” Poe winked and Finn almost forgot he’d just been rescued, and felt instead like they were heading out on their own adventure. “Name’s Poe Dameron, what’s yours?”

Finn was dazzled and dazed, between frightened and excited, so he didn’t register the question at first.

Poe raised an eyebrow. “They didn’t get you on the head did they?”

Finn blushed and looked at his feet in the black floorboard. “Well, I uh, my name’s uh… I’m Finn.”

Poe gave him a soft smile. “Hey, uh, Finn. You usually run off with strangers in the middle of the night?”

“No!” Finn scowled. “Hey, you just kind of swooped in and, you know.”

“You were putting up a good fight, but those guys had tire irons and you were outnumbered.” Poe shrugged. “You needed a hand.”

“What about my car?” Finn looked behind him at the outline of the black Mustang under the dimmed light. “It’s a piece of crap, but it’s the only one I’ve got.”

“I’ll fix her up. Just promise me you’ll be more careful with handsome strangers in the dark, yeah?” Poe grinned and handed him a car. “Repairs are on me, since I elected to do the whole Prince Charming thing.”

Finn blushed and grinned and nodded and tried not to fall head over heels right away.

He lasted a full two weeks before he was convinced he was completely in love with his new friend, and his car ran putt-putt-putting out of the Dameron Small Engine Repair Shop for the first time.

***

Finn’s promise lasted a month or so, and he found himself sitting on the interstate, flicking bugs off of his lights. He was waiting for someone to come by and maybe let him borrow their phone. He always managed to break down _after_ his phone had died. And of course, his car phone charger didn’t work, because what kind of world would it be if Finn had any sort of luck?

So he was flicking bugs off of his lights and waiting on a passerby too stop and ask him if he needed help.

Rey stopped and stared at him through narrowed eyes. “Are you waiting on someone?”

“Not exactly. Do you have a phone?” Finn tried to smile at her, but he had a headache and his day had not gone well, and he was hungry and tired…. The list of things he could complain about was nearly never ending, and it didn’t end at his broken down car being a piece of shit again.

Rey moved out of her vehicle slowly, staring at Finn with apprehension.

“There’s a group of guys from around here who’ve been stealing car parts. Have you seen them?” Rey glanced around them, then moved to the back of his car. “It’s pretty dangerous out here right now, sitting all alone.”

“Well, I didn’t really get a choice in the matter.” He frowned and kicked his car and then hissed when he rammed his toe against the hard metal beneath his door. “Please tell me that you have a phone.”

“I do have a garage and a tow dolly, so I’ll get you taken care of. What’s your name?”

“Finn. And you know, my uh… Friend said not to be going off with strangers, and he’s a mechanic so, you know, I think if you’d just let me borrow your phone… please?”

“Sorry, Finn. I don’t have a phone.” She turned to him and put her hand on her hip. “My name is Rey. I’m going to go fetch my tow dolly. Look, don’t get beaten up while I’m gone.”

Finn gaped and sputtered in embarrassed indignation, but she only smiled at him as she drove off.

It was another twenty minutes of flicking bugs off his car and watching a silvery-white car go up and down the road and hoping to whoever was listening that his luck would hold out long enough for Rey to return. The silvery car had just completed its third circle, driving slow enough that he could see the white hat and black bandana stretched over a pale face, bright red hair sticking out from the beanie and blue eyes nearly glowing in the low light, when he heard the rumble of something from behind.

The driver of the silvery car scowled and pounded the gas, squealing around the corner and shouting back after him. Rey rumbled up in a rusty red truck and put it in park, pulling out a long metal stick and hopping down. “Look now, I’m going to need your help. Your car doesn’t look like it wants to move, so we’re going to have to push it on the dolly and latch it that way. You get behind it.”

“What? Don’t they have, I don’t know, tools for that? I mean, maybe I can—”

“Look, from the smell of it, your coolant is leaking and since I don’t see a big puddle of green on the ground, it’s possible its leaking into your head, and if that’s the case, you’re more fucked than I can fix. But if you start the car now, you’re definitely going to kill it for good. I might be able to fix it in my garage, so let’s get going. If we wait here too long, your friends will return.”

Finn snorted. “Not my friends.”

“No, I suppose not. I wasn’t sure. Sometimes they like to post lookout. Scavenging car parts isn’t uncommon around here. Sometimes it’s not so bad. A lot of cars break down right off the interstate and, well, no one ever comes back for them.” Rey looked ahead then, and stopped talking, her mouth thin and her hands gripped tight on her wheel.

Finn had expected her to take him to a shop like Poe’s, but she didn’t. She turned into the neighborhood, down a few houses and parked in what Finn guessed was supposed to be a house.

Finn wasn’t trying to be offensive, but he stared at the shambles of the home with a bit more surprise than was probably polite. He could see holes in the windows, and it was dark inside. Something whirred and rumbled in the distance, even after Rey turned off her rusty truck. She glanced around and waved him over to help her keep the car from rolling away. Even in neutral, there’s no way too roll it directly into the tiny driveway, strewn over with bits and bobs of other vehicles.

It was like a graveyard of car parts, some grimy and shiny, piled up and tumbling over.

She pulled open a dented garage door and Finn was struck by the contradiction.

Inside was immaculate and organized, bits of unfinished projects propped up or covered, a flickering light over a worn work bench. Tools lined the wall and hung from unbent, rusted nails.

They worked the car into the garage slowly, aided in moving it off the tow dolly with Rey’s metal stick. The stick bowed under the weight of the car but didn’t break, and Rey grinned at him as they led it into her work space.

“I’m going to check under the hood, but any work depends on how much needs to be done, and how much it’ll cost me to do it.” She tilted her head, giving him a hard stare as she set her staff down. “It’s possible your car won’t run again. You need to take better care of it.”

Finn shrugged and shuffled his feet. “It’s not even mine. Well, not technically. I mean, I didn’t steal it, or anything. It’s just, it belonged to… Well, he’s not my dad, but he’s not like, not my dad? It’s complicated. I was raised in a foster home, and the guy just gave me the keys and I left and, well, he hasn’t come looking for me so I don’t know.” Finn shrugged again, but his face felt hot and his eyes shifted around the floor.

“Hey, it’s alright. At least you were able to leave.” She offered him a thin smile, and then set to work getting his hood open.

It was a terrible, horrible, piece of shit car, so after she tried all the usual ways of opening it, she sighed and kicked that spot on the fender that forced the latch to pop open. An awful smell roiled through the air, like something sweet and rotten and covered in dirt had suddenly exploded in their direction. Rey waved her hand over her nose and coughed, hissing through her teeth at the sight before them.

“I’m not driving this car out of here tonight, am I?” Finn scrunched his nose and covered it as more smell wafted up from the head.

“Not driving, no. You can stay here tonight, but you’ll have to sleep in the house. I warn you, it’s not exactly protected and the guys around here, they might try to pick your pocket while you sleep.” Rey tilted her head again and then shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t have a phone, so you’ll have to figure something out. I severely doubt you’re moving out of this house before the night is up.”

Finn moved to the front of his car and pulled his phone out, and then rummaged around until he found his spare charger. “Is there any chance I can charge my phone while I wait? Maybe I can get a hold of someone that way?”

Rey glanced at the generator whirring and rumbling in the corner of the room. “If you’re going to, you better do it fast.”

He nodded and grinned and huddled to the corner, plugging his charger into a dusty spot on the wall. He waited until he saw the little lightning-battery sign and then turned the phone on.

He had maybe fifteen seconds before the phone died again. He went to his messages, hit reply to the first one, and then panicked. He didn’t know where he was, exactly…

He put down the name of the neighborhood he broke down in, put “ABANDONED HOUSE” in all caps, and pushed send just as the light was going out on the screen.

He hoped he’d sent it in time for the message to get through.

He didn’t even know for sure who he’d sent it to. Rey wouldn’t appreciate her house being called abandoned either.

“So, uh, nice place?” Finn rubbed his hands over his face. “I mean, you know, the garage. Not the rest of the house. Well, I mean, there’s nothing wrong with—it’s just a bit—it’s airy.” He tried to put a positive lilt to his voice when he made the last observation, but Rey had her back turned to him and didn’t turn around for a moment. Her shoulders were stiff and her hair, tied up in a strange, triple bun style, bobbed as she dipped her head.

“Thanks. It belongs to my parents. I’m just holding down the fort.” She moved a wrench from one side of the bench to the other and tapped it against the corner. “Just holding down the fort, until they come back.”

Finn felt his insides sink, a cold feeling settling in his gut. “Yeah. What’d they do, leave for milk?”

“Don’t know. Woke up and they were gone.” Rey shrugged. “They’re coming back, one day. Or someone will.”

Finn didn’t say anything. Instead he sat back down beside the generator. It powered down shortly after, the flickering light fading away and leaving a red after glow in its wake.

The room was silent aside from the occasional _tnk-tnk_ of metal on metal as Rey worked.

“You know, it’s not safe to just wander around with strangers.” Rey said, looking up at him suddenly. “I’m glad you did. Be safer next time, ok?”

Finn shook off the feeling of déjà vu. “Yeah, ok. At least you saved the day, right?”

“Next time you might not be so lucky.” Rey smiled at him, and even in the dark it was bright enough to blind the sun. “Scavengers around here can smell the fear on you. Now get on, I know your ride’s here.”

She waved over at the window over her head on the garage door, and suddenly lights bloomed in the cracked glass. “Heard his car grinding the rocks in my driveway. Tell him to air his tires.”

Finn gaped and nodded and then moved quickly, before he lost his nerve. He wrapped Rey in a hug, felt her body immediately tighten, before she put one arm carefully around him and patted.

“Give me a bit, I’ll pay you to fix my car. You look like you could use some new tools anyway.” Finn shrugged, careful to keep his expression light and his smile wide. “And we’ve got to hang out sometime. I’m a disaster when it comes to these things.”

Rey nodded slowly, and this time her smile was slow and unsure. “Yeah, I’d like that, Finn.”

***

Rey and Poe were very different.

Rey was serious and she moved like a shadow through her neighborhood, but also everywhere else too. When she smiled, it lit the room, but those smiles were rare and slow coming. Finn noticed a carefulness to her that he’d noticed once in himself. That was long ago, but it came from years of waiting and the uncertainty of ever being free.

The first time Finn heard Rey get excited and bubble up talking, she had just found the perfect match for his broken part(s) in a scrapyard a few miles away. She was telling him exactly how she’d fix his Mustang, and how much better it would ride when she finished, and how he’d be able to take it wherever he wanted to go now and probably not need a ride home. Finn wished he’d had a camera, even if he knew she’d never actually let him take a picture of her.

He needed to show the world this woman who was brighter than the sun, and warmer too.

But first he needed to tell Poe.

Poe was a mixture of sunshine and broken clouds. He knew when to let his smile fade to something softer, when to step up and put a reassuring hand on Finn's shoulder and remind him that he had a place to stay now, a person to look to for help. Sometimes Finn wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to be doing, but Poe had given him a job cleaning up shop after closing time and had let him stay in the guest bedroom of his tiny apartment.

There were pictures of a man and woman, the two of them smiling wide from their frames, hanging on the walls. Poe said his mom used to fly in the air force—only the fastest and the most dangerous ever kept her. She'd retired with his father when he was five, but by the time he was nine, cancer had taken her out. His father raised him until he was 18, and then Poe had taken over their shop just in time for his dad's heart to give out. He'd been living on his own ever since, but he still talked to them sometimes, when things were going poorly or, more often, when things were going very well.

When he found out Finn was living in his car after running away from his foster home, Poe had immediately let him into the guest room. They'd both agreed it was a temporary arrangement, but Poe never put a time limit on it, and Finn didn't seem to have many prospects besides minimum wage and cleaning the shop floor, so Finn wasn't sure how long he'd be at Poe's.

Sometimes, when he mentioned he was looking for a better job so he could hurry up and get out of Poe's hair, Poe would make a face and flip his waffles and tell Finn they should go out later to celebrate.

Whenever Finn would mention having plans with Rey after work, Poe would raise his eyebrows and grin really big and joke about pretty girls.

And Poe was right. Rey was really pretty. Finn pined after her just as much as he pined after Poe, but it didn't take a genius to see that Poe and Rey would love each other if they ever met.

They were both so warm and kind and giving, and both passionate mechanics to boot.

Finn couldn't just keep them to himself. He had to at least let them meet. So one day, he casually mentioned to Poe that he was going to bring by a friend for dinner. Poe had sputtered milk over his chin, wiped his face, and grinned wide enough to split his face nearly in two.

“I'll make plans for myself then, yeah?” Poe waggled his eyebrows. “Don't want to interrupt your date. Did you finally make the moves on that girl, then?”

“Well, no. Not exactly. Maybe you should, you know, stick around. I think Rey would like to meet you.”

And she did. They'd talked about it before. Rey had sounded excited to meet another mechanic—especially one who worked in his own shop. So he'd set it up and that was settled.

He tried not to be jealous of a relationship that hadn't even started yet, and ate the stack of waffles Poe shoved in front of him.

*.*.*

“I don't know, I've never worked on motorcycles before.” Rey chewed her naan bread on one side of her mouth and shoveled Chicken Tikka Masala onto her fork. “People tend not to leave those lying around, and no one in the neighborhood owns one.”

“So you just work on whatever sits there long enough?” Poe nodded, stabbing into his bits of lamb and pushing his rice around. “You must get an interesting mix of things, even still. \Finn said you towed him home one night. That night I picked him up?”

“Yeah, he looked like he needed help. It took a while, but I fixed his cracked head, and made a few other changes.” She shrugged, her cheeks burning red. “There was no way I was letting him go back home with that car like it was.”

“Well, you know, he hasn't had to bring it in in a while. He never lets me work on anything except for the biggest problem, and I always tell him that I'd rather fix it all at once than him break down again. How'd you tow his Mustang? Did you raise the rear wheels or the front ones? I didn't notice any wear on any of them, and the fender isn't scratched up, so either you drive like an angel or you had some kind of trick.” Poe scooped up a big bite and waited for her to answer.

“I actually have a tow dolly. You should never tow a Mustang with any of its wheels raised if you can help it. Flat towing is the only good way to go.”

Finn stabbed miserably at his paneer saag and stuffed a wad of bread in his mouth. This was going exactly as he'd planned it and now he was realizing how much it sucked that those two were going to hit it off. Probably get married or something, disappear into their shop, and never return. Or maybe they'd still invite him around all the time and he'd have to watch them be perfect for each other from a distance. He wondered if he sighed wistfully again if they'd see him pouting.

Poe stood up whenever Rey had finished her speech about proper emergency towing techniques and waved for Finn to follow him. “I just remembered I had a thing to show you, Finn. A thing about that uh… Come on.”

Finn shuffled along after him, and glanced back at Rey, forcing a grin in her direction. He figured this was Poe asking him if Rey was single, and he was very aware she was. She'd lamented about how lonely it was in her little broken down home, and how she'd just about given hope that she'd make any lasting relationship with anyone. He'd expected them to like each other. He hadn't expected it to happen so quickly, but it was obvious they'd hit it off. Soon she'd have a cute new boyfriend.

Poe stopped right outside the hallway and clapped a hand on Finn's shoulder. Finn flinched at the motion, but not because Poe had hurt him or anything. He braced himself for the question.

“Look, I think she's great for you. You should make a move. She seems amazing, and definitely into you.”

“What?” Finn frowned and looked back to the kitchen. “Into me?”

“Yeah. Look, I know it's difficult going after someone you like...” Poe gave a bit of a strangled noise at that and his face turned bright red, his gaze dropping quickly to Finn's chin. “But look, she likes you, ok? And she'd be crazy not to. You're a good man, Finn.”

“Yeah, thanks, but I thought… I mean, you two? With the cars and the...” He wanted to say pretty, but he didn't think Poe had completely caught on that he was bisexual, so he bit his lip instead.

“Nah, man, she's really into you.” Poe clapped him on the back and gestured back into the room.

“Oh, ok.” Finn grinned and walked back in, but Poe didn't follow. Instead, Poe headed outside.

“Your boyfriend's cute.” Rey grinned and scooted her plate away. It was spotless, no sauce or crumb left. “He's really sweet too. Seems pretty into you.”

“My boyfriend?” Finn scrunched his eyebrows and tilted his head. “What?”

“Oh, come on. You two didn't have to hide to kiss or anything.” Rey shrugged. “Is he coming back? Because I've never had lamb.”

“No, I don't think he is. You think Poe's my boyfriend?” Finn's voice jumped an octave and he may have blushed. He wouldn't admit it if he did, but there was definitely heat in the cheek area.

“If he's not, he really wants to be. I mean, he did rub your back for like, ten minutes before the food came.” Rey's eyes flicked to the door and then she grabbed the food from across the table. “And you certainly seem to get along. I think you should go for it.”

“Yeah, funny, you know.” Finn bit his lip and looked at where Poe had left. “Hey, you should, you know, stay here.”

“I don't have anywhere to go,” Rey pointed out. “You drove me here.”

“Yeah, just don't leave!” Finn called over his shoulder.

He hurried out to the hallway and down the door on the left, jumping down the fire escape until he landed beside the garage. A loud thunk sounded on concrete, and Finn ducked his head inside to see Poe staring at a stack of tires with a pout on his face.

“Hey, I need you to come back to dinner. Rey's eaten like, half of your food by now.” He sucked in a breath and then gave Poe the most serious look he could muster. Something inside him bubbled excitedly. “Do you really think Rey likes me?”

“Yeah, dude, she could barely keep her eyes off you all through dinner. And did you see the way she smiled at you? Never seen a girl look that way.” Poe shrugged. “That, and she spent the whole night talking about helping you with your car, and how amazing and adorable you are. I think she's got it pretty bad.”

“Good, good. Hey, look, come with me.” Finn grabbed Poe's hand and yanked him out the door and back up the fire escape steps. Poe's tiny apartment above the garage was surrounded by engines, equipment, and even an office that Poe only went in to with his glasses and a dozen stacks of paper.

They passed it all to pop back into the kitchen, where Rey was poking at Finn's paneer. All the naan was gone. Finn shook his head. “Alright you two, I need you to sit together. To the couch!”

They moved the little party to Poe's worn white couch, orange throw tossed over the top of it, and the two of them collapsed. Rey rubbed at her stomach and dropped her head to her hands.

“You shouldn't have eaten so fast. Indian food requires some pacing.” Poe grinned at her.

“Yeah.” She grimaced and rubbed her stomach again. “It was worth it though.”

“Yeah, indian food, pacing, all that.” Finn waved away the small talk. “Hey, look, do you both like me?”

Poe's mouth dropped open, but Rey only grinned.

“Of course I like you Finn. You don't think I'd go into just anyone's house, do you? I meant to ask you out for a while, but then you said you were taking me to meet Poe and after seeing you two together… I just kind of assumed?”

“I did let you _borrow_ my jacket, for like… how long have you been here?” Poe tugged on his shirt.

Finn grinned, but Rey and Poe looked confused. “So, I like you both. I've liked you both since like, the second I met you. You're both… and so… I mean….” Finn's excitement was getting the better of him, and none of his thoughts wanted to complete themselves.

“Look, are you wanting us to, like, compete or something? Because, I mean, I like you but--”

Finn's hands flew up and he shook his head. “No, no. Oh no. I wasn't asking you to, like, compete. This isn't Twilight. I just, you know, we could all three… you know. I mean, I know you two would like each other if you had the chance, and I mean, I guess I should have mentioned I'm bisexual, and I mean, I've had polyamorous relationships before, and like, I think we could really work. Like, really, really work. Like, we'd be the A-team of relationships. Wait, that's too many old guys, no. Like, the Golden Trio, except romantic. Well, like, if—”

Rey laughed and held up her hand. “I'm on board.”

She gave Poe a shy look, and moved to stand.

“Oh, well, if she's on, and your on, then I'm on.” Poe grinned and jumped to his feet before Rey could stand.

Rey's grin widened as she grabbed Poe's hand and he pulled her to her feet. “I know how to stand without you holding my hand, you know.”

“I wouldn't doubt it. I believe in chivalry and charm, fair warning.” Poe winked at her, and then swung his gaze to Finn's. “Now, can I kiss you? Because I've been thinking about kissing you since I dragged you into my car.”

“You what?” Rey looked shocked.

“It's a long story, and it's not as bad as it sounds.” Poe flicked his eyes to her, but his attention was all on Finn.

“You can kiss me whenever you want, man. I'm a very loving kind of guy.” Finn grinned, and Poe pulled him closer by his jacket. “And after that, I'm going to teach you three how to do polyamorous dancing. It's a trip.”

“I feel like you mean that literally,” Rey laughed.

“Maybe. I do.” Finn laughed too, the sound muffled by Poe's lips.


End file.
